Amendment: Towards the end of the team's time together, shadder2k was playing instead of Likely as he had begun studying at university and no longer had time to play. The original article follows:

The players for OWKings have decided to part ways and dissolve the team. Despite a huge amount of potential on the roster, the team had been unable to unlock it in their matches. This now introduces six free agents onto the market as none of the players have indicated a wish to rebuild.

It has been over a month since michr left the team to be replaced by Clown and it appears that speculation of it being a well-timed evacuation was correct. OWKings were unable to rebound from the slump they found themselves in and the final straw seems to have been losing in the most recent Overwatch Open Qualifer, despite taking a map from Dignitas.

Once the Overwatch Open concludes and rosters are unlocked, many expect shuffles to happen even on top teams; with the wealth of talent than has just been released into the free market it is reasonable to expect these players to find homes in top teams again.

OWKings disband

ShameLess, co-owner of OWKings, gave us his perspective:

The team played together for a long time, they went from having a solid 6 players, and being a top 8 team in the beta, to having to look for new 6th's over and over, and never really getting back to where they were. It takes its toll on people, and they get frustrated. There was a lot of factors, and this was what they felt was best going forward for each of them individually.

When asked whether he thought OWKings would continue to look for teams to support in the future, he replied, “We see no reason to exit the scene, we plan on continuing to support it in whatever way we can and if that's through a team, tournaments, more content or community activities, then sure why not.” OWKings.com as a website for video guides and other community content is here to stay and may be involved in other ways in the future, but they are not being represented by a top team for the moment.

The former OWKings lineup was:

  • Oula “OLBAA” Räsänen (dps)
  • Remy “ADETONIAN” Cabresin (dps)
  • Ruben “ryb” Ljungdahl (flex)
  • Jussi “twidi” Tiipiö (tank)
  • Jānis “Clown” Zagrebins (support)
  • Andreas “Likely” Lindberg (support)